Subject: Re: reference parameter
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Date: 1999/10/22
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3149602104496660@naggum.no>
* David Hanley
| I think one of the reasons perl has succeeded while lisp has not is
| because perl gurus respond with "how do I" questions with "here's how"
| instead of pontificating on what they consider good programming practices.
when trying to tell people about better ways is considered wrong and
teachers are castigated for their attempts to illuminate, you have a
world where stuff like Perl will succeed beyond your wildest dreams.
so you confuse cause and effect. Perl is a language _designed_ to have
"do this"-type answers to every question. the consequence is that there
is no good programming practice in Perl to pontificate about, and people
just learn to do in Perl whatever they already think is OK. (if it was
not doable that way, Perl was modified so it would be.) Perl is a cheap
whore of a language for equally indiscriminate people. some consider
this a very positive property and call it "popularity"; others don't.
personally, I would rather see pontifications about good programming
practice than bad, which is what Perl aficionados and defenders do.
#:Erik